Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sunday regurgitation - "The children who wouldn't go to bed"

One of my bloggy buddies, Andy from Creative Junkie, came up with the idea of Sunday Regurgitation and I loved it so much that I "borrowed" it.....again.....for the 4th time. The whole idea is to go back and find an old post and re-post it (or for lack of better words, in my case, I'm just too lazy to come up with something entertaining today....). If you need a good laugh, definitely go check her blog out. I promise she will turn your frown upside down.

The Children Who Wouldn't Go To Bed:

Cole and Bella are the world's biggest stallers when it comes to bedtime. Just when I think they've used every excuse in the book, they'll come up with something so out of this world, it actually boggles my mind. I told them the other night, "You know, you guys could write a book full of all these bedtime stalling techniques, sell it to other kids and probably make a fortune". Cole said, "Would a fortune be enough to buy some trains at the store?". Before I knew it, I realized I was having quite a lengthy conversation about this....yet another stalling technique of theirs....ask Mommy a question that will require lots of thought and discussion.

Here are just a few excuses they've used recently:

I can't find my blankie(that's odd....I'm pretty sure I just saw you put it under your pillow but I have to give you credit...that might've worked if I hadn't still been in the room when you hid it. You're getting there, though your techniques are still a bit rusty....Mommy - 1 pt, Kids - 0 pts)

I think I might need to poop (well, if you think you MIGHT need to poop, then you probably don't need to....tell your butt to take the night off)

I hear voices (are they dead people? No? Well then go to sleep)

I need to floss my teeth(You can floss in the morning...and since when do you care so much about flossing your teeth? Oh, that's right.....you only worry about such important things when it's 10 minutes past your bedtime. I suppose tomorrow night you'll be telling me you need to solve world hunger)

My eyebrows are bothering me (Well, then maybe we should shave them off so you can get to sleep)

Why do we have to sleep?(Because that's when your body does all its growing)

So if we don't ever sleep, we won't grow? (Precisely...in fact, I heard a rumor that if kids don't get at least 9 hours of sleep a night, they start shrinking back to the size they were when they were born. We'd have to wheel you into kindergarten next year in a baby stroller...how embarrassing would that be?!)

I need you to rub my back again(I've already rubbed your back for more than a few minutes....who's gonna rub my back when it's sore from bending over to rub your back?)Daddy will rub you(yeah, I bet he will, but unfortunately that would probably only make my back hurt worse)

I'm afraid of the monsters *for the 10th time* (That's wierd....I got an e-mail today from Elmo saying that he and Grover are scared of YOU)

That sounds like my 2 year old! She has been big on the excuses this past month. Her most common ones are:

*I need to go Pee Pee*I need to go Poo Poo (right after I've taken her potty 5 minutes before)*I need a sip of water (didn't you just have a sip when you got out of bed the last time?!?)*Put my doll/blanket/toy in the hallway

about this time she is getting out of bed and talking to her sister while throwing toys into her sister's bed

My son is a sleepy head but my 9-year-old daughter, the oldest, moves like a snail. Because I don't tend much to her before bed like the younger one, she's on her own ... which is a very bad thing. She'll pee for 5 minutes, brush for 10, turn down her blanket for 15, etc. Ugh!

She has no clever excuse and just moves to a different time zone or something.

Your kids are creative geniuses. LoL. I consider myself lucky that we do not have this particular battle. Oh we have battles (getting Monkey to eat anything besides bananas and PB&J requires infinite time and patience, neither of which I have readily available) but bedtime is rock solid. Then again, we have had the exact same bedtime routine since he started sleeping in his own room (at a year old) so he's had a while to get used to it...and the idea that no amount of excuses is going to change the fact that he's going to bed.